It is human instinct to feel with the time, but also move with the time, but there are some extraordinary individuals who remained steadfast on the cause ...
The Tsunami of Dec 04 taught us many important lessons on and about ourselves as well the nature of human instincts.
It brought with it sufferings and the lost of human lives. But it also created opportunities for love and friendship to bloom among strangers.
Many individuals came together to help humanitarian efforts, and to demonstrate the human spirit of sharing and caring.
While many humanitarian agencies collected hundred of millions of dollars for aid for various affected places, groups of individuals took upon themselves to contribute in their own creative ways.
The human instinct works in unexpected ways – in response to human tragedy such as the Tsunami.
When I was in Banda Aceh with Br Damanhuri, Br Helmy and Ustaz Jakfar, two weeks after the Tsunami to deliver several containers of supplies from Project Zip, we met an Indonesian lady at a school-turned-medical base to provide medical services to survivors.
She had traveled alone from Germany where lives with her husband with a container full of medical supplies to set-up a medical base to assist the survivors.
When she heard the news of the Tsunami and its impact, she raised funds to purchase medical supplies in Germany and airfreight it to Jakarta.
But it was not to be an easy journey.
When she arrived at Jakarta, the immigration and customs formalities were overwhelming. She had no necessary papers and therefore had to convince all government officers she had to deal with, of her intentions and her cargo, and to allow her passage to Banda Aceh by land.
Single-handedly, she braved her way from Germany to Aceh with a container load of medical supplies and eventually set-up a medical base.
What is more intriguing is that she is not even a medical doctor or a person of any form of medical training – what she had was pure human instinct. Her story is but one of many more moving and enriching human stories on the Tsunami.
We also have a story of a group of concerned individuals who work together to find sponsors in Singapore for Aceh orphans for their education and daily expenses.
This group expands and contracts as time passes and indeed it is extremely difficult to keep the momentum and the passion going year after year.
Whilst many will come forward to volunteer at the point of time when tragedy strikes and when pictures of human suffering comes to live, very few will continue to work on the cause.
It is human instinct to feel with the time, but also move with the time.
Three years on, very few special individuals remain attached to the Tsunami survivors and are working to improve their human condition.
One of these special individuals is Kamariah Ahmad. To say that Kamariah is a volunteer-extraordinaire is even an understatement.
She has traveled numerous times to Medan and Banda Aceh to help orphans and needy families to recover and resume life.
And from her travels she brought back with her interesting and exciting ideas to uplift the human spirit.
Her book titled Ombak Samudera is a testimony of her passion to document the orphans’ inner thoughts and encounters with the Tsunami and to present Aceh’s religious historiography.
This book contains chapters and pages of the works of orphans and affected children. It is a book of art, a book of poetry and a book of spirituality combined.
But apart from history and the past, Kamariah attempts to ensure that the orphans and the affected children have a future.
Ombak Samudera is Kamariah’s contribution to uplifting the human spirit and the condition of the orphans, affected children and parents in Medan and Aceh.
She has done, and is still doing her part, selflessly and with utmost generosity.
What about us?
The Tsunami of Dec 04 taught us many important lessons on and about ourselves as well the nature of human instincts.
It brought with it sufferings and the lost of human lives. But it also created opportunities for love and friendship to bloom among strangers.
Many individuals came together to help humanitarian efforts, and to demonstrate the human spirit of sharing and caring.
While many humanitarian agencies collected hundred of millions of dollars for aid for various affected places, groups of individuals took upon themselves to contribute in their own creative ways.
The human instinct works in unexpected ways – in response to human tragedy such as the Tsunami.
When I was in Banda Aceh with Br Damanhuri, Br Helmy and Ustaz Jakfar, two weeks after the Tsunami to deliver several containers of supplies from Project Zip, we met an Indonesian lady at a school-turned-medical base to provide medical services to survivors.
She had traveled alone from Germany where lives with her husband with a container full of medical supplies to set-up a medical base to assist the survivors.
When she heard the news of the Tsunami and its impact, she raised funds to purchase medical supplies in Germany and airfreight it to Jakarta.
But it was not to be an easy journey.
When she arrived at Jakarta, the immigration and customs formalities were overwhelming. She had no necessary papers and therefore had to convince all government officers she had to deal with, of her intentions and her cargo, and to allow her passage to Banda Aceh by land.
Single-handedly, she braved her way from Germany to Aceh with a container load of medical supplies and eventually set-up a medical base.
What is more intriguing is that she is not even a medical doctor or a person of any form of medical training – what she had was pure human instinct. Her story is but one of many more moving and enriching human stories on the Tsunami.
We also have a story of a group of concerned individuals who work together to find sponsors in Singapore for Aceh orphans for their education and daily expenses.
This group expands and contracts as time passes and indeed it is extremely difficult to keep the momentum and the passion going year after year.
Whilst many will come forward to volunteer at the point of time when tragedy strikes and when pictures of human suffering comes to live, very few will continue to work on the cause.
It is human instinct to feel with the time, but also move with the time.
Three years on, very few special individuals remain attached to the Tsunami survivors and are working to improve their human condition.
One of these special individuals is Kamariah Ahmad. To say that Kamariah is a volunteer-extraordinaire is even an understatement.
She has traveled numerous times to Medan and Banda Aceh to help orphans and needy families to recover and resume life.
And from her travels she brought back with her interesting and exciting ideas to uplift the human spirit.
Her book titled Ombak Samudera is a testimony of her passion to document the orphans’ inner thoughts and encounters with the Tsunami and to present Aceh’s religious historiography.
This book contains chapters and pages of the works of orphans and affected children. It is a book of art, a book of poetry and a book of spirituality combined.
But apart from history and the past, Kamariah attempts to ensure that the orphans and the affected children have a future.
Ombak Samudera is Kamariah’s contribution to uplifting the human spirit and the condition of the orphans, affected children and parents in Medan and Aceh.
She has done, and is still doing her part, selflessly and with utmost generosity.
What about us?
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